


Just Save One

by canthelpmyselves



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Dubious Consent, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, Gen, Sexual Slavery, mentioned mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 12:23:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16832545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canthelpmyselves/pseuds/canthelpmyselves
Summary: An AU set in a world were civilization almost destroyed itself. The aftermath of chemical and radiation weapons changed a lot of things. Some males now have the ability to conceive. In an effort to rebuild the population and prevent extinction, anyone capable of carrying a child is put into a breeding program.Decades later, Mick meets someone who could use his help.





	Just Save One

**Author's Note:**

> No actual dub/con is presented in the story, but it is reference/implied. I probably could have marked this Teen and Up, but due to the nature of the story, I felt it safer to go with a higher rating.

Mick signaled the bartender for another beer before turning and looking around the bar. It was a typical Thursday night, it seemed. A few retired thieves were in a booth reminiscing over a pitcher of beer. A couple of young bucks were hustling each other at the pool tables. A trio of working girls were taking a break and sharing a plate of fries near the jukebox. Mick picked up his beer and took a drink just as the front door opened and a newcomer slipped in. Mick watched curiously as the kid (and he was definitely a kid, barely looked old enough to even be in the bar) edged along the back wall, sticking to the shadows cautiously. 

Mick was about to turn back around when he noticed how the kid was cradling his left arm to his chest. He looked harder and spotted a shadow on the kid’s cheek that had nothing to do with the lack of lighting. The door opened again and the kid froze in place, eyes widening enough for Mick to see the absolute fear in them. Mick was on the move before he had fully processed the thought.

Ten long steps and he was right in front of the kid, who immediately plastered himself to the wall. Every inch of that skinny body practically screamed terror. Mick braced one forearm on the wall beside the kid’s head and leaned in close.

“Not gonna hurt you, kid,” he whispered. “Play along.’

A couple of seconds later a muscular man stepped up to the kid’s other side. Mick eyed him quickly, noting the large muscles, cruel eyes and furious expression. He snorted internally. “Get lost,” he growled before the guy could say anything.

The guy ignore Mick, looking at the kid. “You shouldn’t have done that, Barry. You embarrassed me in front of my colleagues. Let’s go.”

The kid, Barry, seemed to shrink in on himself. Mick shifted to where he was standing in front of the young man, arms crossed over his chest to allow his own muscles to bulge. He turned his head slightly, so he could see the kid, but still keep an eye on the other guy. “You wanna go with him, kid?”

The kid shook his head quickly, his right hand grabbing the back of Mick’s shirt tightly. Mick faced the guy fully. “He doesn’t want to go. I think I’ll keep him here.”

“Do you have any idea who I am?” the guy growled. 

Mick smirked, spotting Lisa walking into the bar. She noticed him right away and raised an eyebrow. Mick tilted his head toward the kid and she nodded, which told Mick that she’d protect the kid if things got violent. Just then the guy reached around Mick and grabbed at Barry who gave a pained gasp. Oh yeah. Things were gonna get violent.

Mick could move fast for a big guy. In the blink of an eye he had the guy by the throat and was shoving him toward the middle of the room. The guy threw a punch, which barely registered with Mick. For all his muscles, the stranger had shitty strength. Mick wasted no time in pummeling the idiot to the floor. All in all, it had only been seven minutes since the kid entered the bar.

Mick wiped his knuckles down his jeans before turning back to Barry. Lisa was beside him, stroking the kid’s arm soothingly as she inspected the darkening bruise forming around his wrist.

“Don’t think it’s broken, sweetie,” she was saying, “but you should have it looked at anyway.”

The kid was shivering, but his eyes were locked onto Mick. “Thank you,” he mumbled.

Mick shrugged as he moved closer. Now that the initial threat was gone, he took a moment to really study the kid. Big green eyes, high cheekbones and plump lips made him very pretty. The lean body was encased in skinny jeans and a loose sweatshirt. The clothes did nothing to hide the tremors running through him. Even more telling was the thin metal band around the kid’s wrist. The band bore the mark of the Queen Stable. 

Shit. The kid was a breeder.

Barry flinched when he realized Mick was staring at the band. He quickly cradled the wrist to his stomach and looked down, his complexion paling even more. Mick sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets, letting the kid know he wasn’t going to touch him. “Was that guy your handler?” he asked as calmly as his gruff voice would allow.

Barry shook his head quickly. “N-no! H-he’s a hunter,” Barry stammered. “F-for Th-Thawne. H-he tried to b-buy me, b-but M-Miss Th-Thea said no. I was v-visiting m-my sister wh-when W-Woodward cornered m-me.”

Mick felt a surge of compassion for the obviously traumatized kid. Hunters were scum. They made their living kidnapping potential breeders for any stable that could afford their price. Lisa looked at Mick with determined eyes. He knew what that meant. He also knew it would be pointless to argue with her. 

“Come on, kid,” he growled. 

Barry tensed a bit more before his body suddenly slumped and resignation flashed through his eyes. He nodded and let Lisa lead him across the bar and through the door that led to the apartment upstairs. Mick followed and made sure to lock it behind them. Len was in the living room, looking over the blueprints for their next heist when they walked in. Barry gave a faint whimper when Len stood and eyed him coldly. Lisa released his arm and headed to the kitchen.

Mick opened his mouth to explain what was going on to Len but choked when Barry shuddered and unbuckled his belt and popped the button on his jeans. “What are you doing?” he demanded.

Barry’s fingers stilled but he kept his eyes on the floor. “I’m s-sorry,” he stammered. 

Mick groaned and ran a hand down his face. “Dammit,” he mumbled. “Kid, you ain’t here for that!”

Len quirked an eye and stepped around the coffee table. “Who’s this?” he demanded.

Mick stomped over and threw himself down on the armchair. “Barry. He had a run in with a hunter downstairs. Thought it best to get him up here so he could calm down a bit.”

Len and Mick exchanged knowing looks as Lisa walked back in with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. She handed both to Barry who hesitantly took two pills and swallowed them quickly. Then she guided him over to the sofa and settled him in beside her. 

“I’m Lisa,” she began in a gentle voice. “That’s my brother, Lenny, and the big guy is Mick. No one is going to hurt you or force you. I promise.”

Barry looked at them from beneath his eyelashes, but it was easy to see the disbelief in his eyes. “Okay,” he mumbled.

Mick grunted with annoyance while Len just studied the kid intently. Lisa rolled her eyes at them before reaching out and gently taking Barry’s left wrist in her own. “We’re not hunters or rapists,” she said soothingly. “You’re a breeder, right? Do you have a handler we can call to come get you?”

Barry blushed and shook his head, looking down at the floor. “No,” he whispered.

“How old are you?” she asked.

“N-nineteen,” he mumbled.

That surprised Mick. Usually breeders were given a handler, someone who scheduled their ‘dates’, by sixteen. It was an archaic practice that none of them agreed with, but the system had been put in place generations ago, right after The Long War. 

The Long War had begun and ended long before Mick was born. Poverty, disease, crime and drug addiction were at an all-time high. Countries fought and scrabbled over dwindling resources. Everything came to a head when a foreign country (Mick forgot which one) released poisonous gases on it’s neighbor just to steal their oil rich land. Soon, other countries were taking sides and armies were being deployed. Seventeen years. That’s how long the war lasted.

When it was over, the world’s population was only a quarter of what it had been. Many of those still alive were starving or injured and would soon die. The world was weakened and it didn’t take much for someone to step in and take over. Or rather, someones. 

The World Council was formed by five individuals. Moira Queen, Harrison Wells, Micheal Hunter, Thomas Wayne and Ra’s al Ghul. The five of them took it upon themselves to rebuild humanity. They restructured governments, they organized workers in different fields like technology, farming and medicine, and they negotiated a world-wide treaty. 

Then they discovered the true cost of The Long War. All those poisons and radioactive weapons had rendered almost 90% of the remaining population sterile. It wasn’t long before al Ghul came up with a plan. A horrifying atrocity of a plan. Every woman was rounded up and tested. Those still capable of producing children would be put into a breeding program. Men who could prove their sperm were viable were brought in to impregnate the women.

Then things got more complicated. It started with a young man named Gavin Clark. He was the first known male to conceive and carry a child. Whether it was a result of evolution or a fallout from all the radiation, it was soon discovered that there were other males who also had the ability to conceive. With the inclusion of those males, 19% of the population was fertile. 

Fifty-three years ago, it became standard procedure to test all newborns to see if they were breeders. If so, they were immediately ‘removed’ to stables where they were cared for and raised until they were old enough to be bred. Then they would be made available for ‘dates’ to anyone with enough money and power (and of course, sperm count) to pay for their time, in the hopes of impregnating the breeder, and thus increasing the world’s population. 

It was glorified sexual slavery, in the trio’s opinion. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much they could do about it. They were just lucky that none of them were fertile.

“Why don’t you have a handler?” asked Lisa.

Barry paled and his shoulders curled forward, as if trying to make himself smaller.

“Give us an answer, kid. Can’t help if we don’t know what’s going on,” Len said in a bored tone.

Mick watched with growing curiosity as the young man seemed to find some scant store of courage and look up at them. He squared his shoulders, despite the way they trembled, and took a deep breath. “I don’t have a handler because no one wants me. No one but Thawne, anyway, and Miss Thea hates him, so she won’t let him have me. No handler wants to waste time on a breeder they can’t make any money on.”

Lisa looked at Barry with disbelief. “Why the hell wouldn’t anyone want you? You’re adorable!”

Barry’s eyes widened and he blushed a deep red. Then his shoulders curled in even more and his fingers dug into the palms of his hands. Barry sucked in a shaky breath and a tear slid down his cheek. “I have a malformed cervix,” he managed to whisper. “The chances of me getting pregnant and carrying to term are very low.”

“So why keep you in the breeder program?” Lisa asked. 

“They invested time and money in me,” he admitted. “Miss Thea may hate Thawne, but she is hoping he will offer more for me and they can recover their losses.”

“Losses?” Mick growled. “You’re a goddamn human being! Not a fucking commodity!”

Barry shrunk a little more. “Breeders don’t have rights,” he mumbled. “Miss Thea has $100,000 invested in me. I’m only worth what she can make from selling me to someone, permanently.”

Lisa wrapped an arm around Barry and helped him stand. “Come on. You can rest in my room until dinner is ready, okay?”

“I should get back before Miss Thea gets upset,” Barry mumbled.

“Nap, then food,” Lisa insisted. 

Mick watched her herd the kid down the hall and into the bedroom. Looking at Len, he knew the other man knew what was coming next just as well as he did. Sure enough, when Lisa returned she put her hands on her hips. 

“How big is my take from the last heist?” she demanded.

Len sighed and stood up. “Nowhere near a hundred grand.”

Lisa scowled but before she could argue Len held up a hand. “But if we pool our takes, it might be enough to pay off his contract.”

Lisa looked at Mick hopefully and he chuckled. “Don’t bother with the puppy eyes. I’m in.”

Len pulled a phone from his back pocket. “I’ll contact the Queens.”

* * * 

“Hey, kid!” Mick called out as he stepped out of the office. Barry looked up from where he was wiping down tables with a smile. “Dinner’s almost done. Finish that and head on up.”

“Sure thing, Boss,” Barry grinned.

Mick chuckled as he hustled the last customer out of the bar and locked the door. He was still somewhat surprised by how quickly and easily Barry had settled into their lives. Ten months ago he had been too skinny, scared of his own shadow and full of nervous ticks. When Lisa told him they had bought out his contract, he had gotten even more skittish, convinced they had bought him to breed him. It took months before he realized none of them were going to do anything like that. 

Lisa was like an overprotective momma bear when it came to Barry, while Mick and Len made sure no one so much as patted his hand without Barry’s explicit permission. They made sure no one bothered Barry in any fashion. When a drunk tried to sneak a kiss, Lisa broke his jaw. When Thawne had tried to kidnap Barry after they refused to sell him, well… he was still learning how to walk again. 

He thinks that was the turning point for Barry. After that the kid stopped hiding in corners or tiptoeing into rooms. Now he happily worked in the bar, cleaning up, filling in for the cook on her days off and helping behind the bar on the busier nights. He called Lisa ‘Sis’ and Len was ‘Captain’. 

Barry was great at thinking on his feet, too. When a heist went bad and the CCPD showed up to arrest Mick and Len, the kid had given them a shockingly believable alibi that seemed so sincere and was so detailed the cops left convinced Len and Mick were not only innocent, but also had one of the detectives apologizing for suspecting them. 

Barry put away the cleaning supplies and waited for Mick to turn off the lights before leading the way upstairs. Lisa was placing the dishes on the table and Len was loading up plates when they took their seats at the table. Mick grinned as Barry’s stomach rumbled eagerly.

Maybe they couldn’t change the world. Maybe they couldn’t change society. But they had saved Barry and that was something none of them would ever regret.


End file.
